Chen

Chen
"I bring panda-monium!"
Basic Info
Title	Legendary Brewmaster
Role	Bruiser
Difficulty	Hard
Franchise	Warcraft
Price	500 / 4,000
Release Date	September 10, 2014
Base Stats
Attack Type	Melee
Health	2473
Health Regen	5.1523
Resource	100 Brew
Unit Radius	0.9375
Attack Speed	1.11
Attack Range	2
Attack Damage	90
Data Page

Chen Stormstout, the Legendary Brewmaster, is a melee Bruiser Hero from the Warcraft universe.

Chen is a potent Bruiser who will dominate if the enemy team is lacking mobility.

History

This section concerns content exclusive to the Warcraft universe.

Chen Stormstout is a wanderer, adventurer and keg-emptier -- and this world-class brewmaster has left an indelible mark on Azeroth's history.

Chen Stormstout was born and raised on the Wandering Isle, a massive landmass on the back of the giant turtle Shen-zin Su. There, he developed his superior fighting skills and the desire to explore and discover new lands (and new ingredients for his legendary brews) like the traveling Pandaren who left Pandaria thousands of years past. Chen's wanderlust led him into adventure after adventure, from the creation of the wildly popular Brewfest event to the very founding of Durotar, where he fought along with the re-formed Horde to establish it in its new home.

Years later, along with his niece, Li Li, Chen embarked on a quest that led him to the mystical Pearl of Pandaria, and with the help of the artifact, he visited his ancestors' home, Pandaria, for the first time. Not long after, the Horde and the Alliance discovered the continent and rekindled their conflict, placing Chen (once again!) squarely in the middle of history.

Gameplay

Chen is a very unique and durable melee Bruiser with solid damage output, high self-sustain, disruptive capabilities and conditional mobility, which allow him to do well in a multitude of ways. Chen functions around his Trait, Fortifying Brew to Shield himself and recover a resource called "Brew", which replaces Mana. "Brew" is used for two (three) of his Basic Abilities: Flying Kick leaps over a targeted area, dealing a medium amount of damage. Keg Smash deals a small amount of damage and applies Brew to enemies in the targeted area, a debuff that Slows enemies and can be Ignited with Breath of Fire, which deals Area of Effect damage in a cone shape in front of Chen. Chen's third Basic Ability is called Stagger and requires no "Brew" to be activated. Instead, it is a Basic Ability that negates all damage taken for a few seconds and then applies 75% of that damage to Chen.

His first Heroic Ability is Wandering Keg, which turns Chen into an Unstoppable barrel with high Movement Speed and some Armor that can also Knockback enemies into dangerous positions, secure Control Points (such as Mercenary Camps, including Boss) or be used to escape in case of danger.

His other Heroic Ability, Storm, Earth, Fire, allows Chen to split into 3 'Elemental Spirits' that have 70% of his maximum Health each and give him access to unique Abilities in place of Basic Abilities. This splitting process puts Chen into Stasis, removing most debuffs from Chen, including any Damage over Time effects (including his own self-damage from Stagger). If all of the 'Elemental Spirits' die, Chen dies too. When  Storm, Earth, Fire ends, Chen returns with exactly the same amount of Health he had just before successfully casting it.

The unique Abilities offered by Storm, Earth, Fire are:

• Storm is a survivability tool that gives a Shield to every Elemental Spirit for a few seconds when not empowered or extends the duration of every Elemental Spirit from 12 to 17 seconds and gives them a more powerful Shield without a time limit when empowered;
• Earth is an engage tool that allows you to close the gap to enemy Heroes with a jump toward a target area within 9 range, then deals 32 damage and Slows enemies hit when not empowered or deals 128 damage and Roots enemy Heroes hit when empowered;
• Fire is a damage boost that increases Attack Speed and Attack Damage for 5 seconds to every Elemental Spirit, by 50% when not empowered or 75% when empowered.

Strengths

• High single target sustained damage versus Heroes
• High in-combat sustain through Shielding
• Dive potential
• Not reliant on Mana
• Conditional mobility
• Powerful and flexible HeroicAabilities
• Strong bodyblocker
• Versatile playstyle
• Hard to gank

Weaknesses

• Prone to being interrupted (when drinking Brew, or when casting Storm, Earth, Fire)
• Low waveclear and camp clear for a Bruiser
• Weak in fights before level 10
• Predictable playstyle
  

Abilities

See Data Page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

D

Fortifying Brew

Cooldown: 5 seconds

Chen drinks from his keg, gaining 50 Brew and 180 temporary Shields per second, up to a maximum of 540 while drinking. Shields persist for 4 seconds after you stop drinking.

---

Type: Shield, Resource

Scaling: 4.00% / -

Affects: Self

Targeting: No target

Properties: Stationary channel

Cast time: Instant

Tickrate:
- Shields: 2.0/s (x8)
- Brew: 8.0/s (x32)

Shields per tick: 90

Brew per tick: 6.25

Channel time: 4.0 seconds

Q

Flying Kick

10 Brew Cooldown: 5 seconds

Kick through target enemy, dealing 120 damage.

---

Type: Spell Damage / Movement: Launch

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies / Self

Targeting: Unit target

Cast time: Instant

Range: 6.0

---

• Chen is positioned on the opposite side of the target upon landing.

W

Keg Smash

30 Brew Cooldown: 5 seconds

Deal 50 damage and soak enemies in Brew for 3 seconds, Slowing them by 10%. After 1.25 seconds, the Slow is increased to 40%.

After being used, this ability becomes Breath of Fire.

Breath of Fire
Deal damage and Ignite Brew-soaked enemies.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Area of Effect, Clamping, Self-castable

Cast time: 0 + 0.1 seconds

Range: 3.5

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 2.0

---

• Igniting enemies also extend the duration of Brew-soaked debuff by 1.5 seconds.

W

Keg Smash - Breath of Fire

10 Brew Cooldown: 1.25 seconds

Breathe a cone of flames, dealing 85 damage. Enemies soaked in Brew are Ignited, dealing 171 additional damage over 3 seconds and adding 1.5 seconds to the duration of the Slow from Keg Smash.

After being used or after 6 seconds, this Ability becomes Keg Smash.

Keg Smash
Damage and Slow enemies.

---

Type: Spell Damage

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Area of Effect, Clamping, Damage over Time (Ignited)

Cast time: 0.1 + 0.25 seconds

Area of Effect: Radial

Radius: 7.0

Arc: 60 degrees

Tickrate: 1.0 per second (x3)

Damage per tick: 55

---

• Igniting enemies also extends the duration of Brew-soaked debuff by 1.5 seconds.
• The cooldown does not start counting until Breath of Fire has been used or it has expired.

E

Stagger

Cooldown: 18 seconds

Damage taken over the next 3 seconds is prevented. Once this effect ends, Chen receives 75% of the damage taken over 5 seconds. This damage cannot be modified.

---

Type: Status effect / Percent damage

Scaling: -

Affects: Self / Self

Targeting: No target

Properties: Damage over Time, Protected

Cast time: Instant

Tickrate: 1.0 per second (x5)

---

• Damage over time can still be prevented, absorbed or dispelled through specific Abilities and effects.
• Chen can die from self-damage, which grants the enemy team the normal amount of XP and takedown credit.
• Damage taken during Stagger's protective period is calculated and stored after all reductions, causing its damage reduction to stack multiplicatively with other defensive damage modifiers, like Armor, that were active at the same time.
• Does not prevent or store damage to Shields.

R

Wandering Keg

Cooldown: 50 seconds

Roll around inside an Unstoppable barrel with 70% increased Movement Speed and 25 Armor, dealing 59 damage to enemies in the way and knocking them back. Lasts for 5 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control / Defensive damage modifier, Status effect

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Non-Structure enemies / Self

Properties: Area of Effect,Knockback, Mobile channel, Unstoppable

Cast time: Instant

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 1.0

Knockback duration: 0.32 seconds

Knockback speed: 23

---

• Chen can not attack, use his Abilities or stop during Wandering Keg.
• Colliding with an enemy momentarily Slows Chen's Movement Speed by 7%, stacking up to 42%.

R

Storm, Earth, Fire

Cooldown: 120 seconds

After 1 second, Chen splits into three elemental spirits for 12 seconds, each with 70% of Chen's maximum Health and a unique Ability. The last spirit Ability that is cast is empowered. If all three spirits are killed, Chen will die as well.

Storm can grant the spirits a Shield.
Earth can leap to an area and Slow Enemies.
Fire can grant the spirits Attack Speed, damage.

---

Type: Summon, Status effect

Affects: Self

Targeting: No target

Properties: Channeled cast (stationary), Stasis

Cast time: 1.0 (ch) + 1.0625 seconds

---

• Interrupting the Ability during its cast time puts it on a 10 second cooldown.
• Each spirit ability can be used only once per cast and requires the corresponding spirit to be alive.
• Chen is put in Stasis while Storm, Earth, Fire is active. In addition to usual effects of Stasis, Chen is removed from ground plane (disjoints certain projectiles), has no collision, cannot regenerate Health, Mana, Energy or Shields and cannot be seen on the minimap or revealed.
• Spirits cannot Mount, Hearth, collect Regeneration Globes and power-ups, use Healing Fountain or channel Objectives.
• Upon dying during that form, Chen receives damage equal to his maximum health which counts to the hero who killed him.
• Spirits cannot Mount, Hearth, collect Regeneration Globes and power-ups, use Healing Fountain or channel Objectives.
• At the end of the duration Chen reappears at one of the alive spirit's locations based on the following priority: Storm -> Earth -> Fire.

---

Storm

Type: Heroic Pet

Scaling: 4.00% (damage & Health)

Targeting: Player controlled

Health: 1731

Basic Attack damage: 59

Attack speed: 1.25

Attack range: 6.5

Movement Speed: 4.4

Unit radius: 0.625

---

Earth

Type: Heroic Pet

Scaling: 4.00% (damage & Health)

Targeting: Player controlled

Properties: Splash, Slow

Health: 1731

Basic Attack damage: 37

Attack speed: 0.67

Attack range: 1.0

Movement Speed: 4.4

Unit radius: 0.8125

---

• Earth's Basic Attacks splash in 3.5 radius, dealing Spell Damage and Slowing enemies within 3.5 radius of the primary target by 25% for 1.75 seconds.

---

Fire

Type: Heroic Pet

Scaling: 4.00% (damage & Health)

Targeting: Player controlled

Health: 1731

Basic Attack damage: 17

Attack speed: 1.67

Attack range: 1.0

Movement Speed: 4.4

Unit radius: 0.625

Q

Storm, Earth, Fire - Storm

The spirits gain a Shield for 400 over 3 seconds.

If this is the final Ability cast, the Shield amount is increased to 750 with unlimited duration and the duration of Storm, Earth, Fire is increased by 5 seconds.

---

Type: Shield

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Self (spirits)

Targeting: No target

Cast time: Instant

W

Storm, Earth, Fire - Earth

Fire and Earth leap to the target location dealing 32 damage and Slowing enemies in a large area by 70% for 1.5 seconds.

If this is the final Ability cast, increase the damage dealt by 300% and instead of Slowing, the leap Roots enemy Heroes hit for 1.75 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control / Movement: Launch

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies / Self (Fire & Earth)

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Root, Slow

Cast time: Instant

Range: 9.0

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 3.0

---

• Empowered leap bonus damage stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers.
• After the leap, Storm and Earth will attack the closest target within their acquisition range, if no attack command is issued.

E

Storm, Earth, Fire - Fire

Increase the Attack Speed and Basic Attack damage of the spirits by 50% for 5 seconds.

If this is the final Ability cast, the Attack Speed and damage bonus is increased to 75% and the spirits gain 50% Movement Speed for its duration.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier, Status effect

Affects: Self (spirits)

Targeting: No target

Properties: Attack Modifier, Attack Speed, Movement Speed

Cast time: Instant

---

• Damage bonus stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers.

Talents

1

Eye of the Tiger

Basic Attacks against Brew-soaked enemies deal 40% more damage and heal Chen for 40% of the damage done.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier / Healing

Scaling: -

Affects: Self

Properties: Lifesteal

---

• Stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers affecting Chen's Basic Attack damage.

Freshest Ingredients

Increase the healing duration of Regeneration Globes by 150%.

❢ Quest: Gather 15 Regeneration Globes.

❢ Reward: Reduce Fortifying Brew's cooldown by 2 seconds, and 50% of its Shield persists indefinitely after drinking.

Stormstout Secret Recipe

Chen heals for 3.5% of his maximum Health when his Basic Abilities hit an enemy Hero.

---

Type: Healing

Scaling: -

Affects: Self

---

• Damage over Time ticks from Ignited enemies do not trigger healing.

4

Deadly Strike

Flying Kick no longer costs Brew. Additionally, its damage is increased by 125% while Chen has Shields from Fortifying Brew.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Ability

---

• Stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Flying Kick's damage.

Accumulating Flame

Increase Ignited damage by 20%. Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes who are Ignited increase its duration by 0.75 seconds.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Ability

---

• Does not increase the duration of Brew-soaked debuff.
• Stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Breath of Fire's damage.

Withering Flames

Igniting an enemy Hero reduces their Spell Power by 60% for 4 seconds.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Enemy Heroes

---

• Stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect the target's Spell Damage output.

7

Gift of the Ox

Increase the duration of Stagger's damage prevention by 1.5 seconds and reduce the amount of damage taken over time to 50% of damage taken.

Brewmaster's Balance

While at or below 50 Brew, gain 20% Movement Speed. While at or above 50 Brew, regenerate an additional 18 Health per second.

---

Type: Health regeneration

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Self

Elusive Brawler

Cooldown: 25 seconds
Active: Activate to gain 30% Movement Speed and Evade enemy Basic Attacks for 2 seconds. Chen's Basic Attacks reduce this cooldown by 2 seconds.

---

Type: Status effect

Affects: Self

Targeting: No target

Properties: Evade, Movement Speed

Cast time: Instant

---

• Can be activated while casting Fortifying Brew or Storm, Earth, Fire without interrupting the channel.
• Buff is removed upon successfully casting Storm, Earth, Fire.

10

Wandering Keg

Cooldown: 50 seconds
Roll around inside an Unstoppable barrel with 70% increased Movement Speed and 25 Armor, dealing 59 damage to enemies in the way and knocking them back. Lasts for 5 seconds.

Storm, Earth, Fire

Cooldown: 100 seconds
After 1 second, Chen splits into three elemental spirits for 12 seconds, each with 70% of Chen's maximum Health and a unique Ability. The last spirit Ability that is cast is empowered. If all three spirits are killed, Chen will die as well.

Storm can grant the spirits a Shield.
Earth can leap to an area and Slow Enemies.
Fire can grant the spirits Attack Speed, damage.

13

Pressure Point

Flying Kick Slows the target enemy by 40% for 1 second, or by 80% if Chen has Shields from Fortifying Brew.

---

Type: Crowd control

Affects: Enemies

Properties: Slow

A Touch of Honey

Increase the Slow from Keg Smash by 20% and its duration by 0.5 seconds.

---

• Also increases the duration of Brew-soaked debuff.

Ring of Fire

After Igniting an enemy, become bathed in a fiery aura, dealing 55 damage every second to nearby enemies for 5 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies

Properties: Area of Effect

Radius: 3.0

Tickrate: 1.0 per second

---

• Ring of Fire does not affect unaggroed neutral mercenaries.
• Damaging enemy Heroes with Ring of Fire does not trigger tower aggro.
• Damage from Ring of Fire is unaffected by offensive damage modifiers and lifesteal effects.

Enough to Share

Fortifying Brew instantly grants Chen a Shield that absorbs 180 damage, and each second grants nearby allied Heroes a Shield that absorbs 140 damage, up to 420.

---

Type: Shield

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Allied Heroes

Tickrate: 2.0 per second

Shield per tick: 70

Shield duration: 4.0 seconds

---

• Does not increase Fortifting Brew's Shield cap.
• Allied Shield does not benefit from talents enhancing Fortifying Brew.
• Subsequent applications refresh the duration.

16

Flying Leap

Increase Flying Kick's range by 15% and reduce its cooldown by 0.5 seconds each time an enemy Hero takes damage from being Ignited.

---

Bonus range: 0.9

Celerity

Basic Attacks against Stunned, Rooted or Slowed enemy Heroes reduce the cooldown of Stagger by 2 seconds and grant Chen 30 Armor for 3 seconds.

---

Type: Defensive damage modifier

Affects: Self

Properties: Armor, Attack Modifier

---

• Does not stack with other positive Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers, like Stagger's damage reduction, may stack.

Combo Strikes

Every 3rd Basic Attack against the same target deals 75% bonus damage. While Chen has Shields from Fortifying Brew and for 2 seconds afterward, he gains 35% Attack Speed.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier, Status effect

Affects: Self

Properties: Attack Modifier, Attack Speed

---

• Changes target and progresses in the cycle even if the attack misses due to Blinds or Evasion.
• Stacks additively with other damage modifiers affecting Chen's Basic Attack damage.

20

Untapped Potential

Increase Wandering Keg's Movement Speed from 70% to 125% and grants 75 Armor for its duration and 3 seconds afterward, reducing damage taken by 75%.

---

Type: Defensive damage mdifier

Affects: Self

Properties: Armor

---

• Does not stack with other positive Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers, like Stagger's damage reduction, may stack.

Elemental Conduit

Increases the spirits' Health to 100% of Chen's maximum Health and all of their Abilities are empowered.

Purifying Brew

Casting Fortifying Brew grants Chen Unstoppable for 1.5 seconds.

---

Type: Status Effect

Affects: Self

Properties: Unstoppable

Energizing Brew

If Chen channels Fortifying Brew for its full duration, then he gains 20% bonus Health and 20% bonus damage for 25 seconds.

---

Type: Bonus Health / Offensive damage modifier

Scaling: -

Affects: Self

---

• Does not stack with itself. Subsequent applications refresh the duration.
• Stacks additively with other damage modifiers affecting Chen's damage output.
• Energizing Brew buff is removed upon successfully casting Storm, Earth, Fire.
• Health increase is based on Chen's maximum Health regardless of Chen's current Health.
• Upon expiration, Chen retains any Health gained through Energizing Brew that does not exceed his base maximum Health.

Builds and guides

Icy Veins Chen Guide

Chen Community Build Guides @ HeroesFire

Chen Community Build Guides @ Heroes Hearth

Thegreat610's Chen Builds (2021-02-04)
Builds and Roles
Role: Offlane (Damage/Flying Kick Build) Build: [T2131114,Chen]
Role: Offlane (Utility/Breath of Fire Build) Build: [T2332322,Chen]
Role: Semi-Carry (Damage/Basic Attack Build) Build: [T1231332,Chen]
Role: Semi-Carry (Supportive/Fortifying Brew Build) Build: [T2231434,Chen]

Skins

Chen Skins
Legendary Brewmaster
Backstory: To be a Brewmaster is to be an explorer, a lover of nature, and when the need arises; a powerful fighter. For years Chen Stormstout has wandered the world of Azeroth in search of rare ingredients, stirring stories, and of course, good brew.
500 / 4,000 Legendary Brewmaster	Free Crimson	Free Jade	120 / 75 Pristine
Brewmaster
Backstory: Why do we fight? To protect home, and family. To preserve balance, and bring harmony. For Chen, the true question is: What is worth fighting for?
120 / 75	120 / 75 Amber	120 / 75 Frosty
Wanderer
Backstory: The limitless realms of the Nexus are the perfect place for a world-wanderer like Chen Stormstout. Who knows what secret ingredients and lost tales are waiting to be discovered!
120 / 75	120 / 75 Durotar	120 / 75 Krasari
Warmaster
Backstory: The Warmasters serve as the unbreakable front line of Lei Shen's Grand Army. Once the Kaldorei are broken before him, the Well of Eternity will belong to the Thunder King forever.
Notes: This skin theme is part of a shared theme of Warcraft alternative shared history skins.
250 / 300	250 / 300 Flame	250 / 300 Storm

Chen Event Skins
Lunar
Backstory: The loremasters say that coins are a symbol of fortune and luck. During the Lunar Festival, elders hand out Coins of Ancestry to those who seek them out and pay their respects.
Features: Themed abilities.
Notes: This skin theme is part of a shared theme of holiday skins.
350 / 400	350 / 400 Verdant	350 / 400 Azure

Portraits

Chen Portraits
2015 TeSPA Membership	Carbot Chen120 / 75	Chen Hero	Chen Mastery	Chen Icon75 / 40	Chen-O'-Lantern75 / 40	Lunar Chen75 / 40
Lunar Festival	Lil' Lunar Chen75 / 40	Robo Chen Insignia75 / 40	Suplex-Stout Chen75 / 40	Toon Lunar Chen75 / 40	WoW Chen75 / 40

Sprays

Chen Sprays
Carbot Chen120 / 75	Chen Icon75 / 40	Chen-O'-Lantern75 / 40	Feast-ival Chen120 / 75	Lunar Chen Lantern120 / 75	Paper Chen75 / 40	Robo Chen Insignia75 / 40
Toy Wandering Keg75 / 40

Emojis

Chen Pack 1			Chen Pack 2
Emoji	Name	Shortcut	Emoji	Name	Shortcut
	Chen Happy	:chenhappy:		Chen Angry	:chenangry:
	Chen ROFL	:chenlol: :chenrofl:		Chen Cool	:chencool: :cool:
	Chen Sad	:chensad: :sad:		Chen Embarrassed	:chenoops: :chenembarrassed:
	Chen Silly	:chensilly: :silly:		Chen in Love	:chenlove: :cheninlove:
	Chen Speechless	:chenmeh: :chenspeechless:		Chen Surprised	:chenwow: :chensurprised:

Quotes

Main article: Chen/Quotes

Rework

On June 10, 2019, the Heroes of the Storm development team released the patch notes on the Public Test Realm (PTR) that included a full-blown rework to Chen. The task of ripping apart his kit and putting it together in the right order was put in the hands of Live Designer Adam Jackson. Jackson sat down with [http://www.invenglobal.com/ InvenGlobal} to discuss his plan of attack for Chen.

For Chen, Jackson saw an opportunity to create a new, more dynamic playstyle for him while keeping the fantasy of playing as a Pandaren brewmaster alive. There were a few problems he saw in the kit that they were looking to solve. The biggest one was his Trait. It was really hard to design around and to balance around because there are really two parts as to what the identity of Chen is. The first is that he has kind of a cadence to his Abilities. They are all very low cooldown. He has a rhythm that he gets into where he kicks in, he does his Keg Smash, he breathes his fire to light the Brew and then he drinks to mitigate the damage before he cycles and does it again. The key issue was that so much of his power was tied to drinking Brew and it was so important to the rest of his kit. And while that is not necessarily a problem for a lot of Heroes when they have one main thing they want to focus on, for Chen, it defined what he wanted to do and his counterplay. It created a lot of binary interactions where a lot of the counter-play to Chen was, 'Do you have CC (Crowd Control) to stop him from drinking?' And 'Can you kill him before he drinks again?' For Chen, it was, 'How do you not let that happen?'

At first, it seemed like it worked pretty well but then as we made more and more heroes that bring different types of CC to the table, it became pretty easy to draft a team that has at least one CC or multiple interrupts that could stop him from drinking. The natural question of "Why doesn't Chen's Trait grant him Unstoppable so he isn't impacted by CC when drinking?" floated around the Heroes' community. But Jackson felt that might cause more issues than it solves. Making it Unstoppable would have definitely made him better and it would have made him more viable. But, in Adam Jacksons mind, it would not have really solved the issue of creating interesting play and counterplay moments with Chen. All that it would have done was removed counterplay from him. Now the interaction would have become more binary where it is 'Can Chen out-drink the amount of damage that the enemy team is dealing to him?' If yes, then he just wins. If no, then they will just pump damage into him and kill him. Jackson and the team found a middle-ground by tweaking the numbers on his Trait and adding Stagger as his E-ability to mitigate damage. According to Jackson, he wanted Chen to have the feel of a World of Warcraft multi-phase raid boss where you have to pay attention to multiple things at once.

Long-time Chen players know that hitting level 10 meant two options: Do I go with the fun/meme-y Heroic (Wandering Keg) or the thematically awesome but pretty low-impact one (Storm, Earth. Fire)? Neither of them turned the tide of team fights very much but Wandering Keg could prove useful, if used properly, so it was generally the go-to selection. Jackson knew that had to change, so he tackled the seldom selected one and gave it a facelift: "I really wanted to improve the Heroics in different ways. Storm, Earth, Fire was a bigger headache because it is such an iconic ability that I didn't think we can get rid of it but I wasn't too happy with the way the ability worked on live because it was kind of spammable. You just used it and it frustrated the enemy team and you use it to get out of a bad situation and then Chen's clones would just kind of hop away and become more difficult to manage. It was kind of simple to execute sometimes but frustrating for opponents because you couldn't really do much about it as it was difficult to kill all three. With that Heroic specifically, I really wanted to try tone down the mobility a little bit. I kind of figured it's cool that Chen can bait opponent's a little bit before he dies as you start channeling his Heroic then you can pop it and run away but I thought I was a little too easy to get away. Instead, I wanted to play up, 'Okay, what if we had these abilities be really, really strong and Chen could only use them once?' So we tried that and I felt like it was a pretty big hit. We just tried to rip off of that and we thought 'What if the power wasn't in the abilities themselves but in the order that you use them?' So that is how we came up with each ability being really strong but the last one that you use is empowered and that, when we first played with it, was a slam dunk. Depending on the situation at-hand, Chen's empowered move can be used to deal added damage, increase survivability or create some CC of his own."

Trivia

• Chen first appeared in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (July 2003).
  • His book debut was a decade later, in Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde (July 2013).
• Chen's Heroes of the Storm incarnation's Keg Smash and Breath of Fire Abilities, as well as the Elusive Brawler and Storm, Earth, Fire talents, strongly resemble the Pandaren Brewmaster hero that represented him within Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
• Chen is voiced by Keone Young.
• Chen was one of the three Heroes revealed at Gamescom 2014.
• Chen is one of two pandaren heroes in Heroes of the Storm, the other being Li Li Stormstout, his niece.

Gallery

General

• 

  Artwork of Chen.

• 

  Chen, shown at PAX East.

• 

  The Blizzard DOTA models of Chen and various other heroes.

• 

  Concept art for Warmaster Chen.

• 

  Chen with Fire.

• 

  Chen with Fire.

• 

  Chen with Storm.

Abilities

• 

  Q: Flying Kick.

• 

  Q: Flying Kick.

• 

  W: Keg Smash.

• 

  W: Keg Smash.

• 

  E: Breath of Fire.

• 

  E: Breath of Fire.

• 

  R1: Storm, Earth, Fire.

• 

  R1: Storm, Earth, and Fire.

• 

  R1: Storm, Earth, and Fire.

• 

  R2:Wandering Keg.

• 

  R2: Wandering Keg.

External links

• Developer Insights: Chen and his Brew
• Chen Hero Week
• Chen - Heroes of the Storm
• Chen Stormstout - Wowpedia
• Chen Build Guide on Icy Veins
• Chen Balance Changelog - Heroes Patch Notes
• Chen Sound Files - Sounds of the Storm